Desktop Gnome (Cardboard & Denim)

I have a friend who's living in Albuquerque instead of here in New Orleans so for her birthday I wanted to send her a little taste of the place we met. I conspired with a woman from craigslist to cover a tree in in my friend's yard with Mardi Gras beads in the early morning on her birthday. We discussed compensation and she requested a model of Rumpelstiltskin for her bookshelf.

You will need

• Scissors
• Cardboard
• Paper
• Glue or mode-podge
• Fabric
• Needles / Thread
• Silicone caulk or similar

I cut strips of cardboard then began to fold them over one-another making a crude square tube.

Hold the two strips at the ends and at a right angle, the piece on top gets folded back all the way. (Pink) Next fold piece 2 over the shorter end of piece 1, fold piece 1 around to the top of piece 2.

From here on you fold the pieces back onto themselves until you have your desired length.

I made two legs joined at the middle, a torso, two individual arms and a head this way. I taped them together with small bits of masking tape to hold them in place while I paper-mache(d) the figurine.

1) For his face I used a magazine cut out my girlfriend suggested from her collage reserves and white glue to fix it in place.

2) I knew I wanted him to be wearing clothes because of the worn aesthetic it would add. I cut some rough shapes to see how it would come together. When I had the two pieces that would cover his torso I stitched them together. I then coated him with silicone and massaged the fabric into it. I let him cure while I worked on the jacket sleeves, and the pants.

3) The sleeves were sewn, turned in-side out, and colored. They get fixed into places at the shoulder with another dab of silicone. I only used silicone on the shoulders so the sleeve would hang like a real jacket.

3-B) The pants were a single piece of fabric that was hemmed after being cut to height. This was wrapped around the waist of my figure. I made a T shaped cut in the middle of the front up to the inseam then glued the excess from the back around the leg and pulled the front down over that.

4) For the hat I followed what sjroth did here (Cork-Gandalf) I sewed all the pieces instead of just gluing them. I used E6000 to attach the hat to his head instead of silicone. When it dried I could lift the whole thing from the tip of the hat.

I used a few small bits of wire and some spray paint for the spun gold in his hand.

This was the final product ready to be boxed up with 9 dozen beads and mailed across the country.